Focus Question: To what extent does the Lakota Winter Count, alongside a more thourough oral tradition, help people define themselves (culturally) as Lakota people?
Link to my Project:
Annotated Bibliography:
Calloway,Collin G.. One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark. History of the American West Series. University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
This piece of literature written by Collin G. Calloway (“THE guy for Native American West information” Mr. Newhall) describes the influence of the Corps of Discovery on Indian tribes. Even though I used a very little section of this book, I could tell that the author is very cohesive in his writing.
When I first got this, I thought there would be a lot of information on my topic, but despite the promising title, the book came short. There is no denying that it is a very factual book, but it lacks information on the objects that is it’s cover page. However, for a project on Lewis and Clark or the Mandan, this should prove to be very helpful.
I used this source on Lakota relations with astronomy for my section on Lakota concepts of time, because their time was centered around the movements of the sun and moon. The author, Mark Hollabaugh, is a former professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan. This book explains the role of celestial “power” in Lakota culture. His opinions are slightly forced into the piece, because he seems to think that these things play humongous parts in culture.
Overall, this source is best for people researching Astronomy in relation with religious beliefs. It contains a lot of interesting facts about the sun and moon, but unfortunately, I can’t use many of them in this project.
La Farge, Oliver. Pictoral History of the American Indian. New York, NY: Crown Publishers Inc., 1956.
Pictoral History of the American Indian is a extensive resource describing everything from the diet to the battle weapons of many Native American tribes. The author, Oliver La Farge, is the winner of a Pulitzer Prize, and an alumni of Groton and Harvard (anthropology.) he is particularly skilled in remaining un-biased throughout this piece, but is very fascinated by Indian Art. However, his writing style uses rather large words, and may end up being confusing in areas.
Since American Indians is a very broad topic, there is not much information on my topic. However, the information on Plains Indians is quite unique and interesting, especially the part on sun dances. And since it’s a “pictoral history” there are many images that intensify the meaning of his words. This is a great source for anyone researching a Native American topic that is slightly broader.
This website isn’t on the Lakota Winter Counts, but on the drawings of the lesser known Kiowa. The Kiowa are another Plains Indians that made calendars similar to the Lakota, but theirs have many more pictures in one year. Like another of my sources, it is created by the prestigious Smithsonian Institute. The page does not look as professional as their other pages, but it is still filled with important information. Honestly, it looks like something that would be found on an elementary school teacher’s webpage. This source is important to my project because it goes further into detail on the Kiowa calendars. This easy to read source also helped me distinguish images of Lakota winter counts from Kiowa calendars. Overall this source is most helpful to those researching the Kiowa, which is a very ,hard to research topic.
(*Primary Source*) This is a source made by the Smithsonian Institution, a well-known institution with many museums on many topics, about their exhibit on Lakota Winter Counts. It thoroughly describes what the winter counts are, how they are used, and who makes them. They also have a section of photographs of some of the actual artifacts on display at the museum. They have all the pictures of years on online exhibit, and explains what they are. However, the most original is a section of primary sources. There are 6 interviews of modern-day Lakota and their thoughts on the winter counts.
I literally used every inch of this website, and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it. The annotated bibliography in extensive and well organized. Their information is clear, un-opinionated, and easy to understand. And their diagrams and pictures along with their descriptions are amazing. In fact Mr. Newhall dubs it the “holy grail of Lakota Winter Count information”. It was definitely the most useful source of all that I looked at. This is a definitely a great source for anyone doing a project on winter counts or the Lakota in general.
Focus Question: To what extent does the Lakota Winter Count, alongside a more thourough oral tradition, help people define themselves (culturally) as Lakota people?
Link to my Project:
Annotated Bibliography:
Calloway,Collin G.. One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West Before Lewis and Clark. History of the American West Series. University of Nebraska Press, 2003.
This piece of literature written by Collin G. Calloway (“THE guy for Native American West information” Mr. Newhall) describes the influence of the Corps of Discovery on Indian tribes. Even though I used a very little section of this book, I could tell that the author is very cohesive in his writing.
When I first got this, I thought there would be a lot of information on my topic, but despite the promising title, the book came short. There is no denying that it is a very factual book, but it lacks information on the objects that is it’s cover page. However, for a project on Lewis and Clark or the Mandan, this should prove to be very helpful.
Hollabaugh, Mark. "Lakota Celestial Imagery: Spirit and Sky." 1997.http://faculty.normandale.edu/~physics/Hollabaugh/Lakota/CWSConference.htm (accessed 7/ 31/ 08)
I used this source on Lakota relations with astronomy for my section on Lakota concepts of time, because their time was centered around the movements of the sun and moon. The author, Mark Hollabaugh, is a former professor of astronomy at the University of Michigan. This book explains the role of celestial “power” in Lakota culture. His opinions are slightly forced into the piece, because he seems to think that these things play humongous parts in culture.
Overall, this source is best for people researching Astronomy in relation with religious beliefs. It contains a lot of interesting facts about the sun and moon, but unfortunately, I can’t use many of them in this project.
La Farge, Oliver. Pictoral History of the American Indian. New York, NY: Crown Publishers Inc., 1956.
Pictoral History of the American Indian is a extensive resource describing everything from the diet to the battle weapons of many Native American tribes. The author, Oliver La Farge, is the winner of a Pulitzer Prize, and an alumni of Groton and Harvard (anthropology.) he is particularly skilled in remaining un-biased throughout this piece, but is very fascinated by Indian Art. However, his writing style uses rather large words, and may end up being confusing in areas.
Since American Indians is a very broad topic, there is not much information on my topic. However, the information on Plains Indians is quite unique and interesting, especially the part on sun dances. And since it’s a “pictoral history” there are many images that intensify the meaning of his words. This is a great source for anyone researching a Native American topic that is slightly broader.
Smithsonian Institute National Anthropological Archives, "Kiowa Drawings." February 1, 2003.http://www.nmnh.si.edu/naa/kiowa/kiowa.htm (accessed 7/28/08).
This website isn’t on the Lakota Winter Counts, but on the drawings of the lesser known Kiowa. The Kiowa are another Plains Indians that made calendars similar to the Lakota, but theirs have many more pictures in one year. Like another of my sources, it is created by the prestigious Smithsonian Institute. The page does not look as professional as their other pages, but it is still filled with important information. Honestly, it looks like something that would be found on an elementary school teacher’s webpage. This source is important to my project because it goes further into detail on the Kiowa calendars. This easy to read source also helped me distinguish images of Lakota winter counts from Kiowa calendars. Overall this source is most helpful to those researching the Kiowa, which is a very ,hard to research topic.
Smithsonian National Anthropological Archives, "Lakota Winter Counts: An Online Exhibit." http://wintercounts.si.edu/index.html (accessed 7/ 25).
(*Primary Source*) This is a source made by the Smithsonian Institution, a well-known institution with many museums on many topics, about their exhibit on Lakota Winter Counts. It thoroughly describes what the winter counts are, how they are used, and who makes them. They also have a section of photographs of some of the actual artifacts on display at the museum. They have all the pictures of years on online exhibit, and explains what they are. However, the most original is a section of primary sources. There are 6 interviews of modern-day Lakota and their thoughts on the winter counts.
I literally used every inch of this website, and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about it. The annotated bibliography in extensive and well organized. Their information is clear, un-opinionated, and easy to understand. And their diagrams and pictures along with their descriptions are amazing. In fact Mr. Newhall dubs it the “holy grail of Lakota Winter Count information”. It was definitely the most useful source of all that I looked at. This is a definitely a great source for anyone doing a project on winter counts or the Lakota in general.